Transcript From Messaging to Connecting - School Administrators of Iowa

From Messaging to Connecting:
Engaging the Community as Partners in
the Transition to Standards-Based
Grading
Iowa School Administrators
November 17, 2015
Tim Westerberg, Ph.D.
Intended Outcomes
Participants will:
1. Describe the options available along the SBG continuum
and suggest where their school/district is and where it
needs to/can go.
2. Identify the purpose and components of an effective
communication plan.
3. Distinguish between messaging and connecting and the
appropriate uses of each.
4. Critique proposed ground rules for authentic community
engagement.
5. Select and justify the one-and two-way methods of
messaging and connecting that best fit their school
communities interests and needs.
Outcomes (continued)
6. Explore, analyze, and earmark specific strategies for
communicating with parents and students.
7. Consider and select strategies for supporting teachers
in understanding and communicating the purpose and
essential tenets of SBG.
8. List major “take-aways” from the experiences of
pioneering IA schools/districts.
9. Articulate the positions of IA college and university
officials regarding SBG and college readiness.
10. Develop “starter” communication and engagement
plans, and share those plans with other districts.
Approximate Agenda
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9:00-9:10
9:10-9:30
9:30-10:00
10:00-10:15
10:15-10:40
10:40-11:00
11:00-12:00
12:00-12:30
12:30-1:30
1:30-1:50
1:50-2:10
2:10-2:20
2:20-2:45
2:45-3:00
3:00
Welcome & Introductions
Charting a Course to SBG
The Communication Plan
Messaging & Connecting
Break
Messaging & Connecting
Local Practitioners Panel
Lunch + Assignment (pp. 43-49)
Directors of Admissions Panel
“Takeaways” from Panels
Authentic Community Engagement
Grading Committees
Starter Communication Plans
Cross-District Sharing
Session Ends
Destination 1: Addressing
Counterproductive Practices & Beliefs
• Goal: “Tighten up” a traditional approach to classroom
assessment and grading.
• Examine common practices and beliefs:
 Zeros
 Formative and summative assessments
 Homework
 Extra credit
 Reassessment
 Averaging
 Combining academic performance and work habits
• From “doing your own thing” to common practices &
expectations based on best practice research
Destination 2:
A Guaranteed & Viable Curriculum
Rethinking, repackaging, and redeveloping
curriculum, instruction, and assessment
Course units of study that encompass essential
elements of relevant state/national standards.
Descriptive scoring scales (0-4) for each measurement
topic of each unit of study.
Formative and summative assessments targeting each
level (2-4) of each measurement topic.
Instruction (materials, activities, assignments) aligned
with each level (2-4) of each measurement topic.
Converting Scaled Scores to Letter Grades
3.00 - 4.00 = A
2.50 - 2.99 = B
2.00 - 2.49 = C
1.50 - 1.99 =D
Below 1.50 = F
Destination 3: Standards-Reference
Reporting
• Report cards are organized around standards
• Report cards can include both performance on
standards and traditional letter grades
(secondary level)
• Calls for extensive school community
education and engagement
• Software implications
Destination 4:
Competency-Based Education
• Students advance based on demonstrated
performance on individual standards/clusters
of related standards rather than by passing
courses
• Offers a way to personalize education
• Requires a total rethinking of the purposes,
nature, and structuring of schooling
Charting a Course to SBG
• Your current location?
• Your destination?
• Your timeline?
Alan Tenreiro Named 2016 National
Principal of the Year
Tenreiro… invested in the school’s current standardsbased system, which has led to more uniform
expectations for students, clearer feedback to
students, and a focus on reporting what has been
learned—not just what students have done.
Cumberland (RI) has seen increases in academic
achievement , graduation rates, and the number of
students gaining admission to some of the best
colleges and universities in the country.
NewsLeader. Vol. 63, No. 3 (November 2015): p. 1.
“This is not a task for the faint of heart….All
reform on a districtwide scale is tough, but
moving a system to true standards-based
grading is extraordinarily tough, long-term
work and requires district leadership to
tenaciously do the right thing for students.
Waging war against the status quo requires
the willingness to tackle layer after layer of
difficulties in order to lead the way to new and
purposeful assessment and grading practice.”
A School Leader’s Guide to Standards-Based Grading.
Heflebower, Hoegh, and Warrick. Marzano Research, 2014. P.
87.
The Communication Plan
A communication plan must proactively answer
people’s questions and concerns with clear
and consistent messages delivered through a
variety of communication channels.
The Communication Plan
A communication plan must proactively answer
people’s questions and concerns with clear
and consistent messages delivered through a
variety of communication channels.
Communication Plan
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What are you trying to accomplish?
What will success look like?
How will you track and measure success?
How does SBG fit into the bigger picture?
Who else is doing this? Has it been successful?
What research supports this change?
What process will be followed?
Which stakeholders will be involved, and how?
How will stakeholders be kept informed?
How will this change impact me/my kid?
(Handout, pp. 8-12)
Communication Plan Analyses
Divide and Conquer:
1. What’s the question?
2. What are the recommended response
components?
3. Is this question typically addressed in
communications to your publics when
initiating significant change?
The Communication Plan
It is important to clear about audience, medium,
and message.
Handouts:
Internal Communication Plan
External Communication Plan
Engagement Strategies Chart
(Handout pp. 13-15)
Messaging
 Informing
 Well-thought-out messaging can be useful
• Conveying specific types of new information
• Countering misperceptions
• Addressing gaps in knowledge among the broader
public
• Putting ideas on the table
 Avoid insider jargon and shop talk—use language
and examples that are human, compelling, and
concrete
Connecting/Engaging
It’s about dialogue—Listening and
understanding rather than advocating and
persuading
It’s looking for common ground
It’s about asking people to join leaders in
problem solving
It’s not a debate
Public Sentiment
“In this and like communities, public
sentiment is everything. With public
sentiment, nothing can fail; without
it, nothing can succeed.”
Abraham Lincoln, first Lincoln-Douglas Debate, August
21, 1858
Ground Rules for Authentic Public
Engagement
1. Take a big-tent approach. Include all stakeholders (diverse
constituencies) from the beginning and develop genuine
relationships.
2. Be sure to talk and listen.
3. Sing from the same songbook. Focus on internal
communications and consider everyone a messenger
(knowledgeable and able to explain the rationale behind
SBG):
a)
b)
c)
The most important messengers are those closest to the kids and
families,
Specific talking points for teachers and principals, and
Publish a statement about the district’s beliefs about classroom
assessment and grading.
4. Use existing communications methods and structures (PTA)
Ground Rules (continued)
5. Ensure that you use simple, clear, consistent
messages for all and differentiate for key audiences.
6. Methods matter. Communication tools and delivery
mechanisms are important.
7. A good defense is a better offense. Start
communicating early.
8. Be proactive rather than reactive. Educate the school
community on the truths of SBG. Let them in on how
hard this is—risks, cost, tradeoffs.
9. Provide community members with URLs that give
them information about SBG.
Community Meetings:
Enlighten or Polarize?
How much time will be devoted to presenting
versus hearing what people have to say?
How will you respond when people disagree
with you?
What will you do afterwards?
Overcoming Resistance
Go for the heart, not the brain. Tell stories.
Put a human face on SBG.
Listen to complaints. Identify underlying
concerns. Build on/focus on strengths.
Invite participants to tell their stories.
Handout: “Have you Ever….” p. 50)
Assessment Toolkit
http://www.nysed.gov/assessmentstoolkit
Reflection
Think about a time when your school/district
wanted to engage the school community in
solving a problem or addressing an important
issue.
1. Which ground rules of community
engagement were employed effectively?
2. Not employed but could have been helpful?
Messaging & Connecting
One Way
• Newsletters
• Fliers
• Back-to-school nights
• Computer calls
• Email blasts
• Online postings
• URLs
(Handout pp. 18-29)
Two Way
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Community forums
Focus groups
Home coffees
Parent-teacher conferences
Phone calls
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Hashtag
Crowdsourcing
Webinars
Blogs
Google Voice
Google Forms
Google Hangouts
District/school App
Voxer
Voxer
• Voxer is a San Francisco based mobile app
development company most well known for its free
Voxer Walkie Talkie app for smartphones. Founded by
Tom Katis and Matt Ranney, Voxer Walkie Talkie is both
a live "push-to-talk" system and a voice messaging
system. Messages on Voxer are delivered live as they’re
being recorded and then delivered as a voice message
as well. The app works on Android, Windows Phone
and the iOS operating systems. In April 2012, the
company raised $30 million in venture financing from
Institutional Venture Partners, Intel Capital and other
angel investors.
Using Now?
One-way?
Two-way?
Could/Should Use?
One-way?
Two-way?
Structure the Message to Parents
(Vatterott)
 Focus on school improvement, not grading
 Parents are concerned about their children—not the
features of the system
 “The changes we propose for our students’ learning:
• are research based,
• are about improving student achievement, and
• Will better prepare our students for college and careers.
As a result of our goals, it makes sense that we would change
these things about grading.”
(Handouts pp. 30-38)
Structure the Message for Teachers
Handout:
“FAQs Regarding SBG @ JCHS
(Handout pp. 39-42 plus…)
Elevator Speech
“As you may know, the role of our staff is to educate
all students to proficient levels. In order to do so,
we are revising our grading practices to be
aligned to the standards students must meet.
That way, grades will be a clearer indication of
what students have learned, not simply a
measure of how much work they can turn in or
how hard they might try in class. Learning is the
indicator of success.” A School Leader’s Guide to Standards-Based
Grading. Heflebower, Hoegh, & Warrick. Marzano Research, 2014. P. 95.
Reflection
1. How have/will you help teachers support the
initiative?
2. Do you have the capacity internally
to provide this necessary support?
If so, who?
If not, to whom will you turn
for help?
Grading Committee:
Qualifications
• Do they have high influence with others?
• Do they bring a complimentary gift to the table?
• Do they hold a strategic position in the
organization?
• Do they add value to the organization?
• Do they positively impact other committee
members?
• Do they contribute to inclusiveness/diversity—
representing all stakeholders?
Grading Committee:
Roles and Responsibilities
 Oversee the SBG Implementation Plan
(Handout pp. 16-17)
 Serve as a conduit of information and feedback to
and from the larger community
 Make recommendations to district leadership
regarding key implementation decisions
 Pilot proposed SBG procedures, practices, and
tools.
Year One:
Inquiry &
Communication
Year Two:
Capacity Building
Year Three:
Development
Year Four:
Implementation
Review the research on best
practices.
Educate teachers &
administrators on the
tenants of SBE.
Continue developing SBE
units of instruction.
Ongoing training of new
teachers.
Align instructional materials.
Carry out project formative
assessment activities.
Establish a grading practices
leadership committee.
Conduct focus group
sessions re school/district
grading practices—teachers,
students, parents.
Conduct a gap analysis—
best practice/current
practice.
Build a rationale/moral
purpose for change.
Develop a communication
plan.
Determine the need for
outside
consultants/resources.
Provide PD re necessary
prerequisite knowledge.
Provide time & tech support
for teams of teachers to
develop learning goals,
scoring scales, and leveled
assessments for a unit of
instruction. Teach the unit.
Equip
teachers/administrators to
explain the initiative & it’s
purposes & answer FAQs.
Develop core beliefs.
Develop a school/district
grading policy.
Explore/create SBE-grading
software alignment.
Determine project
evaluation criteria &
processes.
Adapt/adopt/pilot SBG
report card.
Educate students, parents, &
BOE members re grading
issues, best practices, & SBE.
Continue student, parent,
BOE education.
Begin exploration of report
card formats.
Continue implementation of
communication plan.
Continue implementation of
communication plan.
Monitor implementation
and provide ongoing
support, modeling, &
coaching.